First up, time on public radio is precious. Shows do not have time to spare. For some reason WBAI's First Voices either cannot grasp that or disagrees. For the second week in a row, we had an extended mix. The most recent mix, on Thursday, went on for fifteen minutes. A large part of that was offering up a remix of Marvin Gaye's wonderful "What's Going On?"

As wonderful as the song is, if First Voices thinks that in their one hour a week, they can spare fifteen minutes at the top of the show for music, then possibly it is time that some other program received the time slot?

While most programs and programmers try to provide as much information and discussion as possible, a show on Native Americans that only has one hour a week on the schedule appears to think that the way to serve their time slot is to spin tunes. The week prior, First Voices exceeded my patience by extending their musical opening to ten minutes. Thursday, it went for fifteen. Pick your favorite public affairs or news radio program on public radio, or commercial radio for that matter, and imagine that it expected to you to endure ten to fifteen minutes of music before the program started?

Fifteen minutes after the hour is too late for a host of a public affairs show to begin speaking. For some reason the program has that time to waste.

When you grasp how little coverage Iraq is receiving from Pacifica Radio stations, there really is not any excuse for any program to wait fifteen minutes before beginning. If they have that time to 'spare,' their time slot needs to be reduced and listeners need to be provided with something other than Wolfman Jack hosting a public affairs program.

There are many important stories and issues for a weekly, one hour program covering Native Americans to devote time to. Somehow, spinning tunes for fifteen minutes does not strike me as covering issues or of strong programming.

The second thing I wanted to note was a passing. This is a press release sent into the public account of The Common Ills.

FOR IMMEDIATERELEASE

CONTACT: David McReynolds (212) 674-7268Ed Hedemann (718) 768-8841

80 YEARS OF ACTIVISM ENDS - WWII CO RALPH DI GIA DIES AT 93

Ralph DiGia, World War II conscientious objector, lifelong pacifist and social justice activist,and staffer for 52 years at the War Resisters League (WRL), died February 1 in New York City. He was 93.DiGia was "without pretensions, one who wore his radicalism in his life, not on his sleeve," saidhis long-time WRL colleague David McReynolds.In addition to his decades at WRL, DiGia's activism took him through countless arrests and astretch in federal prison, thousands of meetings and hundreds of demonstrations, hunger strikes, a bicycle ride across Europe, relief work in Bosnia, and not a few New York Mets baseball games. 80 Years of ActivismBorn in the Bronx to a family of Italian immigrants in 1914, DiGia grew up on Manhattan'sUpper West Side. A 1927 rally for Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzettiset him on the path he would follow for 80 years.At the College of the City of New York, where he was studying bookkeeping, DiGia signed the"Oxford Pledge," refusing to participate in the coming war. In 1942, when the Selective ServiceSystem ordered him to report for induction, he said he was a conscientious objector. But hisobjections to war were based on ethics, not religion, and the draft board had no category forsecular COs. The U.S. attorney's office referred him to pacifist lawyer Julian Cornell, at the WarResisters League; Cornell lost his case, and DiGia spent the next three years in federal prisons.It was at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut, and later at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, that he met other draft resisters, like Dave Dellinger, who four decades later would be a defendant in the Chicago Seven case, and Bill Sutherland, who would move to Africa after the war and eventually become a pan-Africanist advocate for nonviolence. And it was in prison that he and other COs would use the only force available to them--a hunger strike--to compel the prison system to integrate its dining halls. (They won.)After his release at war's end, he embarked in earnest on a life of activism, joining a NewJersey commune with Dellinger. In 1951, DiGia, Dellinger, Sutherland, and fellow CO Art Emerybicycled from Paris to Vienna, handing out antiwar leaflets as they went, urging Cold Warsoldiers everywhere to lay down their arms and refuse to fight. In the early 1950s, he left thecommune and moved to the Manhattan area that would later be called Soho, where he lived forthe rest of his life. (He stayed in an apartment at 18 Spring Street after the building wasscheduled for demolition, after other tenants left and even when he had no water and had to shower at a nearby bathhouse.)In 1955 he joined the WRL staff as a bookkeeper. In the early 1960s, he was arrested more than once for not taking shelter during "civil defense" drills. In 1964 he served four weeks in jail in Albany, Georgia (with, among others, the late peace theorist Barbara Deming) in the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Peace Walk organized by the Committee for Nonviolent Action.Vietnam and AfterAs the Vietnam War escalated, so did the WRL--and DiGia's--resistance. He sent out literature, paid bills, and kept records--and organized demonstrations and counseled draft resisters. In1971--when he was among 13,500 arrested in the May Day antiwar actions in Washington-- he married Karin, becoming stepfather to her children. Their son Danny was born in 1973.He kept resisting war and militarism. In 1977, when thousands protested nuclear power atSeabrook in New Hampshire, he was there. A year later he was arrested on the White House lawn, demanding nuclear disarmament. He was in Central Park in June 1982 when a million people said "No Nukes!" He was at dozens of demonstrations at the United Nations.In the early 1990s, as the tensions in former Yugoslavia turned deadlier, Karin DiGiatransformed Children in Crisis, a nonprofit she had founded in the 1970s to address the issue ofmissing children, into a Bosnian relief agency.The work involved traveling several times a year to Bosnia and to Germany, where the agency also had headquarters. DiGia often accompanied her, becoming as beloved a figure in Bosnia as he was in New York.Into his 80s, DiGia kept accumulating a record: He was arrested in Washington at WRL's "A Day Without the Pentagon" in 1998 and--possibly for the last time--at the mass protests against theacquittal of the NYPD officers who shot Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999. He continued his work at the WRL office through his 93rd birthday last December, although he had become a volunteer instead of a paid staffer in 1994. He even lived out his activism in the ball park: An ardent Mets fan, he remained seated--on principle--during the national anthem.In 1996, the Peace Abbey, the multi-faith retreat center in Sherburne, MA, gave Ralph its Courage of Conscience award (previously given to civil rights activist Rosa Parks, poet Maya Angelou, and the Dalai Lama), "for his example as a conscientious objector and for over forty years of dedicated service at the War Resisters League." In 2005, WRL gave its 40th annual Peace Award to DiGia and his longtime colleague, former photographer Karl Bissinger.This winter, after a fall and hip fracture, he developed pneumonia and died Friday in St.Vincent's Hospital. Karin and their children were with him when he died.DiGia is survived by Karin DiGia, his wife of 37 years; their children, Howard, David, Brenda,Melissa and Daniel, his granddaughter Kyla, and his brothers, Robert and Mario. Contributions in his memory may be made to the War Resisters League.

With U.S. forces imposing tough security measures to thwart car bombings, Iraqi insurgents are increasingly using women and teenagers as suicide bombers, a trend that on Friday led to the worst daily death toll in Baghdad since August.At least 65 people were killed and nearly 150 were wounded when explosions ripped through two crowded Baghdad pet markets. The attacks, which occurred within 15 minutes of each other, appeared to be the sixth and seventh suicide bombings in Iraq by women or teenagers since Nov. 27, though there was some uncertainty about whether one of Friday's blasts might have been caused by a roadside bomb.Witnesses said the bombers were women who'd slipped into the markets without being searched, as Iraqi security forces include few women and men aren't allowed to search women. Iraqi police are trying to recruit more female members.One Iraqi official who speaks for Qassim al Moussawi, the spokesman of the Baghdad security plan, said the women might have been mentally retarded and forced to wear suicide vests that were detonated remotely.Other police officials expressed skepticism about the claim, saying it was made too quickly for any investigation to have taken place, but Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki seemed to echo that version in his condemnation of the attacks.

The Ghazel pet market is a favorite place to spend Fridays. It also is a favorite target of insurgents looking to inflict high casualties. This was the second bombing there since late November and the fifth since June 2006.Ahmed Jimaa Badr, 30, was at the market Friday against the wishes of his wife and parents, who felt that security still was too shaky. But Badr, whose hobby is raising pigeons, wanted to buy some new birds. He chose four and entered a pigeon expert's shop to ensure that one of the birds was a male, for breeding purposes."When the man was examining the bird, a very huge explosion rocked the area," Badr said. The shop windows shattered, and the bird flew away. "I saw white smoke and a hill of bodies, and a lot of animals."The smell of gunpowder mixed with that of burned flesh, and the heat from the blast sent the temperature inside the little shop soaring, "as if it is July," said Badr, who helped evacuate wounded people to hospitals.In the Ghazel blast, police said at least 37 people died and 83 were injured.

About 15 minutes later the second bomb exploded at the New Baghdad bird market four miles away, killing 27 people, the police said. Army units sealed off the market, a parade of dilapidated shops where bloodstained feathers clung to broken cages and shop windows were secured with layers of thick blastproof wiring.Stall holders there had just received news of the Ghazil bombing. "We were just talking about the first bomb when it happened," said Abbas Muhammad Awad, 54, a pigeon seller. "There was not enough time for people to leave because it was only 5 or 10 minutes between the bombs. Many kids were killed because children usually gather around the bird sellers."

Two topics noted in the stories above, the need for parity among female and male police officers in Iraq and Mosul. Mosul? Over sixty people died in last week's bombing. Only Richard A. Oppel Jr. noted that large number this week. (The Iraqi government and US authorities had been playing the numbers down immediately after the Mosul bombing.) The number for yesterday's Baghdad bombings are still varying.

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers.

NOW on PBS aired last night in most markets (but check local listings in case it airs -- or reairs -- at another time in your area). The focus was "middle class families on the edge of collapse" and politicians. You can view the program online. Here's their description:

Leading up to the Super Tuesday primaries, polls indicate that the economy ranks as the number one issue on the minds of Americans, beating out immigration, global warming, even terrorism. NOW on PBS heads to America's heartland - Illinois - to investigate rampant anxiety among America's middle class. How did families on the edge of financial collapse get to this point, and which presidential candidate do they think can restore economic hope and stability?

The Book of Negroes wasn't the only book Hill published in 2007. The day after its release, The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from Iraq was published. Hill wrote The Deserter's Tale in collaboration with Joshua Key, the titular soldier.Hill said he heard Key interviewed on CBC and thought his story was fascinating and the next day his publisher approached Hill about doing the story.Although The Deserter's Tale doesn’t explicitly deal with the same issues of race as Hill's other books--The Book of Negroes, Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada, Any Known Blood and Some Great Thing--he said there are similarities between his two 2007 publications."[The main characters are] both ordinary people who are drawn into a canvas of world events that they didn’t ask to be drawn into," he said.Hill also said he didn’t mind stepping out of his comfort zone when it came to telling Key’s story."In the case of The Deserter's Tale, I was pleased to break out of the mold of writing about black issues."He also broke out of his typical writing mold by writing non-fiction. The Book of Negroes was a stylistic departure for Hill: his other books often use humour to soften tough issues. Hill said he looks forward to pushing boundaries in his style."If you accept that writing is a moral challenge--to empathize with other human beings--then it would be pretty self-limiting to just stay in your own backyard and write about yourself over and over again," he said. "The challenge of writing fiction is to engage with and love other people, many of whom couldn’t possibly be you."

The above, noted by Vince, is from Angela Hickman's "Merging history and fiction: Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes, talks about recognizing the human emotion behind history" (Queen's Journal) and, in the United States, the book was published under the title Someone Knows My Name and was inspired by coming across a British military document from the past (entitled The Book of Negroes) charting over 3,000 African-Americans journey to Nova Scotia following the US Revolutionary War -- some of whom were free citizens and some of whom had been forced into slavery in pre-colonial US. Note that sometimes the article uses "The" and sometimes "A" for the first word of the Key book, I've changed it to "The" throughout when I put in the link.

Many parties finance their militias by stealing Iraq's fortunes every where in Iraq. If we want to weaken the terrorism we should destroy its mold the corruption. May be you will say that I'm exaggerate of that, but if you live in Iraq you will see this fact.Ten days ago we knew from newspapers that the integrity commission uncovered the deal of buying cars for the cabinet that amounted millions of Dollars. After week they deposed the head of the commission and declare to Iraqis that the deposition has no relation with the cars deal (I'm trying believe them). MOI decided to prevent Iraqis from traveling without its knowledge to open a new gate for corruption by bribe the employees there (the citizens will be obliged to pay money in order to hurry their travel).The evidence burned to hide the corruption proofs like what happened in the...... ministry before three years and like what happened yesterday when the corrupted burned the building of Central Bank with the office of inspector general (according to one MP's statement).

At the Los Angeles Times' Babylon & Beyond (a blog) the topic of Iraq is dealt with in "Iraq kerosense blues" by an Iraqi journalist who notes that Iraqis are supposed to recieve 200 liters of kersone for about $17" but instead are paying "$300 alone on heating oil at a time when you are lucky to make that much in salary per month:"

People wonder why electricity and fuel supplies were better in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein. Some think it’s because of corruption, and others believe it is a conspiracy now by the government and the Americans to make people exhausted. People don’t know anymore what to believe.

Meanwhile AP offers a by the numbers look at contractors (196,000 employed by DoD in both Iraq and Afghanistan).

With the recent departures of former Sen. John Edwards and Rep. DennisKucinich and other candidates, the Illinois Green Party called onprogressives and populists abandoned by the Democratic and RepublicanParties to consider voting Green in Tuesday's elections, the firststatewide Green Party primary in Illinois history."Illinois voters who have been supporting Kucinich and Edwards willlikely find the Green presidential candidates appealing," said PhilHuckelberry, national Green Party Co-Chair. "All of our presidentialcandidates staunchly oppose the occupation of Iraq and would bring ourtroops home now. Green candidates also support single-payer universalhealthcare, a living wage, and other efforts to alleviate poverty.To supporters of the Republican Rep. Ron Paul, the Green Party is thelast best hope of bringing about a swift end to the disastrous Iraqoccupation and restoring the civil liberties that have been eroded inthe past several years through policies like the Patriot Act,warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and torture of so-called enemy combatants-- just to name a few."Our refusal to accept contributions from corporations and oppositionto their consolidation of political power speaks to our genuine concernfor the people in America and across the world," said said CharlieHowe, a local McKinney campaign organizer and candidate for staterepresentative (115th district).Green Party presidential candidates on the Illinois ballot are:KENT MESPLAY - Air Quality Inspector at the Air Pollution ControlDistrict, San Diego, and also a Substitute Teacher; registeredGreen since 1995 in California, a delegate to the Green NationalCommittee since 2004, and served as the President of Turtle IslandInstitute. www.mesplay.orgHOWIE HAWKINS (RALPH NADER) - Co-Founder of the US Green Party, aGreen activist and past U.S. Senate candidate from Syracuse, NewYork, and a Co-Chair of the Draft Nader Committee has consented toserve as a "placeholder" candidate until Ralph Nader, longtimeconsumer rights activist and Green presidential nominee in 2000, who hasrecently announced his presidential exploratory committee. If Naderdoes declare for the Green nomination, Hawkins will pledge hisdelegates to support Nader at the convention. www.ExploreNader08.orgCYNTHIA MCKINNEY - First African-American Congresswoman from Georgia,she served in Congress from 1993-2003 and 2005-2007. She has been anadvocate for Hurricane Katrina victims and voters disenfranchised inthe 2000 and 2004 elections. www.runcynthiarun.orgJARED BALL - Assistant Professor of Communications Studies at MorganState University, an independent journalist, radio host with PacificaRadio Washington, DC, the Editor-at-Large of Words, Beats and LifeGlobal Journal of Hip-Hop Culture, and a Desert Shield / Desert StormNavy veteran. Jared Ball has recently withdrawn his candidacy andhas endorsed Cynthia McKinney. www.jaredball.comPrimary voters may also see the names of Green candidates for Congress,state representative, county offices, even precinct committeepersonoffices in record numbers -- a direct result of lower ballot accessrequirements earned in the the 2006 election, when Rich Whitney received 10% of thepopular vote to "establish" the party."The message voters sent in 2006 was very clear: It's time to changethe two-party system," said Howe. "Asking for a Green Party ballot onFeb. 5 is the best way to begin."

It was billed as the great debate that, in the words of moderator Wolf Blitzer, "could change the course of this presidential race and the nation."Situated at the packed historic Kodak Theatre-site of the Hollywood Oscar awards, thousands of people, including anti-war protestors, were outside, where tickets were being scalped for $1,000.The burgeoning excitement swept up Mr. Blitzer into an introduction reminiscent of a heavyweight boxing title fight. Referring to the "glamour on this stage...one of the great stages of all time," he declared that "this will be the first time that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be debating face to face, just the two of them, one-on-one." The crowd ROARED!When it was over two hours later, here is how the reporters, not the columnists, of the New York Times described the showdown: "Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama sat side by side here Thursday, sharing a night of smiles, friendly eye-catching and gentle banter…It was almost as if the battle was to see which of them could outnice the other."Since neither scored a knockout, a knockdown, and neither stumbled, the audience left without many feeling the pain of their champion being bested. Even the Times' critic, Alessandra Stanley, she of the usual barbed pen, could only marvel at the smooth harmony ideology both candidates decided to adopt. She wrote: "They let their eyes make nice...As they stood in front of the audience before the debate, Mr. Obama leaned down to Mrs. Clinton and whispered a few words in her ear, as if continuing the fun chat they had just shared backstage."The two candidates were unperturbed by any questions from the reporters that they had not answered before or they were soft balls they could hit out of the ball park.As in all debates involving presidential candidates, the reporters were unwilling or incapable of asking the unconvential questions reflecting situations and conditions widely reported or investigated by their own colleagues.

Third Party also notes, "Alex Cockburn seems to have forgotten that he once critized Obama, the way he forgot he once published Jason Leopold?, and it's no surprise that when Nader asks him what question he would have asked for the debate, he zooms in on Hillary and gives Bambi a pass. The entire Cockburn family has obviously gone batty, from the niece all the way up."

Both Obama and Clinton need to be put on notice, before November and after, that business as usual will not be tolerated. They will then behave accordingly, not out of conviction, but out of political necessity.Meaningful action can save the country, if the cynical madness of the primary campaign is treated like the distraction that it is. Republicans cannot be allowed to win, but bought off Democrats can't be allowed to think that acceptance of their corruption will be tolerated either. Fighting Bush can be important practice for fighting an Obama or Clinton presidency. Make no mistake, that fight will be necessary too.

Because the overwhelming majority of us are innocent, we protest against restrictions based on our racial ancestry; we protest against the fine technical distinctions of word and deed to cloak the facts; we protest against the arbitrary judgments on our loyalties; we protest against the indifference to and disallowance of our human qualities . . . all because we happen to be of Japanese descent. "Racialism is a Disease," Nisei Affairs (January 1946)From 1945 to 1947, Muriel Kitagawa wrote numerous articles exhorting the Japanese Canadian community to respond to injustice, not unlike the call to action above. She believed that, if those who advocated the denial of Nikkei (persons of Japanese ancestry in North America) rights remained unopposed, other groups would soon feel the sting of oppression with the wholesale curtailment of their human rights. Although the leading Canadian and American public advocates for the Nikkei were almost exclusively white males from religious or professional backgrounds, they were not alone. American and Canadian Nikkei did not sit passively while others defended their rights over the course of the Second World War and beyond. Instead, many expressed their activism through the organizations that represented them and through their community publications. In the United States, the main organization was the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Its organ was the Pacific Citizen, the best-known Nisei publication. In Canada, the Nikkei found expression in the following groups (in order of the date of formation): the Japanese Canadian Citizens League (JCCL); the Nisei Mass Evacuation Group (NMEG); the Japanese Canadian Citizens Council (JCCC); and the Japanese Canadian Citizens for Democracy (JCCD). The New Canadian, initially Vancouver-based and later Winnipeg-based, voiced the opinions of the JCCL while the Toronto-based Nisei Affairs circulated the largely Nisei views of the JCCD during and immediately after WWII.American and Canadian Nikkei involvement in the campaigns to safeguard their rights was not restricted to advocacy within organizations. In the United States, Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, Mitsuye Endo, Ernest and Toki Wakayama, and Fred Korematsu took very public and very individual actions to oppose Washington’s orders. Had they not opted, at great personal risk to resist the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) could never have sponsored test cases. Unlike its American counterparts, the Canadian litigation had no identifiable defendant. The case was a reference case; that is, a submission by the federal government to the Supreme Court of Canada asking for an opinion on a major legal issue. Nonetheless, the Nikkei were involved there too: the legal briefs and representations they made to government officials played an integral role in halting objectionable government actions. Collectively the dissenting US voices loudly proclaimed the need to respect the Bill of Rights. Canadian advocates had no such legal document to appeal to. Although the courts in the United States served as a check on the powers of elected representatives, under the British system that Canada inherited, Parliament reigned supreme. In the absence of constitutional protections, the principle of parliamentary supremacy meant that the elected representatives were responsible for passing and revoking legislation and the justices of the nation’s highest courts would not impinge upon the exclusive authority of the Parliament. For that reason, Canadian advocates appealed to the emerging discourse of human rights and depended on the court of public opinion more than on judicial channels.[1]In many respects, the struggles of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians to achieve voice, representation, and constitutional rights shared much in common; however, some of their approaches differed. Nikkei individuals and organizations cooperated with and received support from national organizations such as the Cooperative Committee on Japanese Canadians (CCJC), an umbrella group formed in 1943 comprised of individuals and organizations from across the country, and the ACLU, a long-standing civil rights organization; members of both groups came from largely "respectable" white, middle-class background. In the US, the JACL worked closely with the ACLU. Eager to demonstrate its loyalty, the membership of the JACL complied with the removal orders and urged all Japanese Americans to follow suit. It became more militant by war’s end as its leadership came to view test cases as an effective tool in dismantling the internment legislation. The initial reluctance to support test cases placed the JACL in conflict with the ACLU.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Friday, February 1, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, a lesson should be used about tossing around the term "suicide bombers," the administration attempts to push back on two topics getting coverage and more.

Starting with war resistance. Bethany Skyler James self-checked out of the US military and went to Canada. Julia Johnson (The Charlatan) reports on James decision to go to Canada and writes, "James says she has official refugee status but because of the Nov. 15 Supreme Court decision not to hear an appeal from resisters Brandon Hughey and Jeremy Hinzman, currently no other resisters are allowed to gain refugee status." The difference between Skyler and Hinzman and/or Hughey is that she is gay and was targeted with bullying and threats while serving and that may have factored into her case when she applied for refugee status. She tells Johnson, "I was being treated inhumanely for being a lesbian. [It was] the worst of the worst of the worst of gay bashing. I have been sent hate letters. People threatened to kill me." When she and a friend made it to Canada, she contacted the War Resisters Support Campaign and she nows lives in Ottawa.

You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.

Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.

Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.

Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.

In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers.

"Baghdad's fragile peace was shattered today when two women loaded with explosives blew up in crowded pet markets, killing at least 60 people and wounding scores more," reports Martin Fletcher (Times of London). Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) reports: "Both markets are surrounded by concrete barriers to bar cars from entering, but with no one to search women at the entrance and exit checkpoints, the female bombers were able to slip in with explosive vests hidden under flowing coats, police said. By Friday afternoon, U.S. and Iraqi military had surrounded the markets and were questioning witnesses, as people cleaned pools of blood from the pavement and swept up dead birds and destroyed pet carriers." CNN maintains the female bombers were "mentally disabled" and "they were blown up by remote control" according to Iraqi Gen. Qasim Atta and places the death toll thus far at 98 with over two-hundred injured. AFP observes, "The apparently coordinated attacks 20 minutes apart ended a relative lull in violence in the Iraqi capital and were the most lethal since August 1, when three car bombs killed more than 80 people." Paul Tait and Aws Qusay (Reuters) quote eye witness to the Ghazil pet market bombing, Abu Haider, explaining, "I was right there at the scene when the blast happened. It knocked me over. When I managed to get up, I saw dozens had been killed and wounded." On that second bombing, Stephen Farrell and Graham Bowley (New York Times) report that "army units sealed off the area and set up checkpoints following the exposion. Bloodstained feathers mixed with melting sleet." AFP describes scene of the pet market: "Some bodies were packed into bags and put in the back of police pick-up trucks. Emergency workers sifted through the bomb-blackened garbage-strewn site in search of a wallet, a watch, a piece of paper -- anything that could help identify the unrecognisable corpses. Bloodied identity cards, watches and sets of prayer beads were placed one after the other into a plastic box. A mobile phone lay amid the wreckage, ringing incessantly; perhaps a relative trying desperately to reach a loved one caught up in the explosion."

Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) offers this background, "It was the fifth attack since June 2006 on the Ghazel pet market, and the second since November. Both it and the bird bazaar are popular places for Iraqis to visit on Fridays, the Muslim day off." Camilla Hall (Bloomberg) provides this, "Baghdad's Al-Ghazal market was targeted previously on Nov. 23, when 13 people were killed and more than 22 wounded in an attack that also took place at the weekend. On Aug. 1, three car bombings in Baghdad killed more than 80 people." Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) offers concrete details about the pet market bomber "a woman wearing an explosive belt under an all covering, floor length coat". AP reports US Secretary of State Condi Rice is calling the above "brutal" yet notice what she's not saying in any of her remarks including this: "It certainly underscores and affirms the decision of the Iraqi people that there is no political program here that is acceptable to a civilized society and that this is the most brutal and the most bankrupt of movements that would do this kind of thing."

What do the bombings "certainly underscore"? That people need to stop using "suicide bombers" repeatedly. In some cases, cars have been rigged but despite the fact that the press picked up upon that sometime ago, the term "suicide bomber" continues to be applied without any indication that any thought went into the 'reporting.' We have said, and will continue to say, "a bomber" unless we're quoting. Condi's trying to sell the illegal war, the press should take away a real lesson from the above: Everyone who explodes because of a bombing on their person, in their vehicle, etc. is not a "sucide bomber." Despite the reality that the women were mentally challenged some reports are including Rice's remarks while still referring to the two women as "sucide bombers." You can't have it both ways. If they are mentally challenged -- and they appear to have been (one was known as the "crazy lady" in her area) -- then they were not "sucide bombers."

In other State Department news, they've announced a press briefing on the topic of Iraqi refugees for Monday featuring James Folely, Stewart Baker and Tony Edson. Presumably to explain why the United States has still done so damn little (or maybe to explain why the few let over are being told "Get a job in six months or get lost") and since Baker is with the Homeland Security Dept, no doubt we'll have a 'security risk' assessment.

It's the first day of the month and a few will do their monthly reports even though the US military often waits a bit before nothing all the military fatalities. Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "The U.S. death toll in Iraq increased in January, ending a four-month drop in casualties, and most of the deaths occurred outside Baghdad or the once-restive Anbar province, according to military statistics. In all, 38 American service members had been reported killed in January by Thursday evening, compared with 23 in December. Of those, 33 died from hostile action, but only nine of them in Baghdad or Anbar.A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks the statistics." After Youssef filed, the number would be 39. At the Pentagon today "chief of staff or Multinational Corps-Iraq" Brig Gen Joseph Anderson spun wildly to the press, via videolink from Baghdad, in an attempt to stamp a happy face on the illegal war. He wrongly claimed that there were only 170 "civilian casualities" in Baghdad for the month. They like to define "civilian casualities" by not defining the term. It is what they say it is. He also 'bragged', "The

security situation today is about the same as we experienced statistically in early 2005."

That's 'success' in their book -- cooking the numbers and then claiming that the levels are now what they were in 2005 -- as if 2005 was a year of peace or anything to pat one's own back over.

In other news for the month, Tina Susman (Los Angeles Times) reports an update on the thugs of the Iraqi government who decided that female police officers shouldn't be allowed to carry guns (the next step would be: no female police officers), "Iraqi police officials have dropped plans to disarm policewomen and give their guns to male officers after an outcry from critics, who said the move was a sign of religious zealots' rising influence in Iraq." However, despite that claim some are less than convinced and Susman quotes US General David Phillips declaring, "Even with the revocation order, we will have to watch very closely the actions taken in regards to the remaining female Iraqi police" which is backed up by a Najaf female police officer Hanan Jaafer who says "none of the roughly two dozen female officers posted at the shrine had guns or uniforms, even though they searched women and children entering the complex and faced threats from the increased use of female suicide bombers." Increased use of female suicide bombers? Today demonstrates more than ever the need for trained female police officers with as much authority as their male counterparts.

While the US installed thugs of al-Maliki's government (especially the Interior Ministry) do their damage, Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reports the Kurds aren't feeling the US love they used to and that their "leverage appears to be declining". Rubin offers a number of reasons including forcing a vote on Kirkuk (she misses her own paper's earlier report about how the Kurds are forcing Kurds into Kirkuck), the arming of Sunnis for hire (which also threatens the US installed Shi'ite thugs) but the clear irritant is buried in paragraph 19: Turkey. The US has long declared the PKK a terrorist group and the fact that they haven't changed that designation and that Turkey has made incursions into the Kurdish region of Iraq (by land and air) has not played well with the Kurdish provisional government in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile the US is in damage control mode on the heals of two stories. First up, Bully Boy and the end of the illegal war. Michael Abramowitz (Washington Post) reports that Bully Boy bragged yesterday that "he would not be pressured into making further troop cuts in Iraq beyond the five combat brigades already scheduled to come home by the middle of the summer" which, Abramowitz notes are the latest in a round of remarks where the Whie House has signaled "that it may keep the number of troops in Iraq at roughly the same level they were before last year's buildup of U.S. forces, possibly through the end of Bush's presidency. Under existing plans, the levels are gradually falling about 5,000 troops a month, from roughly 160,000 to 130,000 by July -- or approximately where they stood before Bush sent reinforcements to Iraq seeking to curtail spiraling sectarian violence." James Gerstenzang (Los Angeles Times) reports that Bully Boy gave the speech to a right-wing non-think tank on Thursday in Nevada and declared he wasn't worried about the "political right thing" to do -- or about international law. Now comes the spin. Andrew Gray (Reuters) notes that the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff made a big show of pointing today to an interview General Davey Petraues gave to CNN Sunday and stating that neither Davey or US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker "have made any specific recommendations about future force levels in Iraq" and that Davey's "given no indication to anybody in the chain of command that" he's wanting to pause the drawdown of troops to nearly the level they were at before the escalation. The second news was about Moqtada al-Sadr. Michael Howard (Guardian of London) offers that al-Sadr is saying the cease-fire is over unless puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki prevents attacks on his followers, that the freeze was only for six months and that Jalal Talbani, Iraq's President, has expressed concerns, to General Davey, "asking him to recognise Sadr's initiative and urging American troops to halt their attacks on Sadr's supporters. In reply, Petraeus praised the anti-US Shia cleric, but said the troops would continue to target those who were apparently not obeying the cleric's orders." So at the Pentagon today, via video link, Brig Gen Joseph Anderson was questioned about al-Sadr by NPR's Guy Ruz who asked about whether "the continued reduction in violence over the coming months depend on Sadr's movement recommitting to its cease-fire pledge?" [On NPR's Morning Edition today, before the press conference, Guy Ruz reported on the topic of drawdown and escalation noting that General Davey intends to speak in April -- possibly April Fool's Day and possibly dependent upon whether or not he doesn't earlier see his own shadow.] Anderson judged the freeze "clearly a help" and that the US military was in talks with al-Sadr regarding the continuing the freeze. Pinned down about the lack of legislative advances (the whole point of the escalation was to create a 'zone' for the Iraqi government to act in), Anderson praised the 2007 provincial budgets -- because he can't praise the central government in Baghdad which still hasn't passed the 2008 budget -- and the de-de-Baathifcation bill which is not a "law" though he called it that. In reality, the bill isn't moving and, as noted yesterday, Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni Vice President (they also have a Shi'ite Vice President) declared it "unlikely" that the bill would become a law -- despite the fact that it is a White House designated "benchmark" and despite the fact that Anderson referenced it today and wrongly called it a "law."

DOLORES HUERTA: Well, I believe that she's a person who has the experience that we need. I believe she has the courage, because she has, you know, taken risks like coming out for national healthcare when nobody else was doing that. She was also--just the fact that shes running for the presidency of the United States. So you've got the combination that we need for a president that can take, you know, as she has said often, to lead on the first day she gets inaugurated, because she's got the intelligence and the experience and the courage and the capability of running the country.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Dolores, as I'm sure you're aware, Ted Kennedy, I guess the icon of the Democratic Party in the Senate, this week came out in support of Barack Obama, and he immediately went to try to campaign among Latinos in California, I guess evoking especially the memory of Bobby Kennedy, who marched with Cesar and you and many of the farm workers in the 1960s. Your response to this effort by Ted Kennedy to convince Latinos to back Obama?

DOLORES HUERTA: Well, on the other hand, we have the endorsement of Bobby Kennedy, actually, Robert Kennedy's son. Bobby Kennedy, as you know, has been very active on the environment, and he had a beautiful piece at the--he, Kerry Kennedy, the head of the Robert Kennedy Foundation, Kathleen Kennedy, former lieutenant governor of Maryland--all of these are Robert's children. And I want to refer you to an LA Times editorial that they wrote of why they were supporting Hillary. And in that article, Bobby says he has worked with Hillary on the environment for fifteen years, and Kathleen has worked with Hillary for twenty-five years. One of the things that, you know, they keep talking about, the progressive candidates, you know, Hillary Clinton voted against the nuclear waste dumping in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, while on the other hand Barack Obama actually took money from the company that was creating the nuclear waste and wanted to dump it in Nevada. So, you know, I think that that pretty much offsets Ted Kennedy's endorsement, because you've got Robert Kennedy's children--of course, the farm workers' union, we were much more closer to Robert, and these are the activists. These are the ones that are out there doing community work, and that they know what Hillary has done in terms of her long history in civil rights, in working for children, working for education. You know, so they know that she's the one that they feel is the best person to run for president.

[. . .]

DOLORES HUERTA: Yeah. There was a big issue, if you will recall, where we had a woman who--in Chicago, Elvira Arellano, who refused to be deported, and she was undocumented. She was in sanctuary for twelve months, for an entire year, right there in Chicago, where Obama lives. The people who did that campaign, these were the same ones that organized the big marches in Chicago, went to see Obama to get some support for Elvira Arellano. He not only refused to help them, but he didn't even bother to go see Elvira. I went from California four times to be there with her. We had a large delegation from Mexico from all the political parties that went to see Elvira. Five ambassadors, they all flew to Washington, D.C. to plead on her behalf. Obama never, never lifted a finger to help her, as he never did when we had two Latinos that had been unjustly incarcerated for a murder that they did not commit. Again, a big campaign to free these two young men from prison. They were ultimately freed. But when they went to see Senator Obama, he refused to help them. I have been a civil rights activist like this all of my life, and I have been to Chicago many times for many different campaigns that the community there--the Latino community was there. I have, to this day, to meet Mr. Obama. I have never encountered him in any of these big campaigns that we have done in Chicago on different issues. And, as I say, I have never yet to meet the man. And so, I don't know about his--

AMY GOODMAN: Did Senator Clinton weigh in--Dolores Huerta, did Senator Clinton weigh in in either of those cases?

DOLORES HUERTA: Well, let me--yeah, let me just say this, that this is a--we're talking about Chicago. We're talking about the third largest Latino area outside of Mexico City, right?

FEDERICO PENA: Can I--

DOLORES HUERTA: But Hillary doesn't live in Chicago. These people here actually went to see Obama, Senator Obama. So I don't believe that he has that kind of courage and that kind of judgment. Or let's say, is it judgment or is it wisdom or whatever? But he chose not to be associated with one of the biggest causes that we have in our community, the cause of Elvira Arellano, the cause of these two young men, where he could have stepped in. They were ultimately freed, by the way, but not with his help. So, I mean, I don't know--

While it was wonderful to see Huerta on the show, with Edwards out of the race, it was a given that Democracy Now! would have to start inviting on Clinton supporters. See Ava and my "TV: Democracy Sometimes?" and Mike and Marcia will be blogging about this topic tonight at their sites.

As a cold wind swept across much of the Middle East on Thursday, bringing snow to northern Iraq and subfreezing temperatures to Baghdad, about 100 soldiers and marines gathered for a ceremony to rename a small helicopter landing zone on this huge American base in honor of a fallen comrade. The man for whom the helipad was being named, Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, a marine, was killed last May in a firefight in Baghdad. On a dark night in an alley, he told his troops to get down before getting down himself, and he was the one hit by enemy fire. His men survived.But Thursday’s ceremony at the military base here at Baghdad International Airport was less a memorial for Major Zembiec -- who has been honored many times for his heroism, and not just in Baghdad but in Falluja as well -- than it was a moment for reflection by the men and women gathered here.

The above is from Alissa J. Rubin's "Comrades Speak of Fallen Marine and Ties That Bind" in this morning's New York Times. Whatever could have been of the article is lost in the next paragraph which has Davey Petreaus speaking and Rubin contemplating what brings a "man" to Iraq. Way to go, Rubin, way to render women invisible. Maybe we should write about the press and wonder what takes a "man" to Iraq? Of course, this is the New York Times, and the fallen wasn't a "man," he was an officer. Otherwise, the paper rarely makes times.

Iraqi police officials have dropped plans to disarm policewomen and give their guns to male officers after an outcry from critics, who said the move was a sign of religious zealots' rising influence in Iraq. Despite the turnabout, which police confirmed Thursday, the U.S. military general who introduced women into the police force said they remained hindered in their attempts to practice real policing skills."Even with the revocation order, we will have to watch very closely the actions taken in regards to the remaining female Iraqi police," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, adding that there "are numerous ways" to drive women from the force.That was confirmed by Hanan Jaafer, a policewoman in the Shiite holy city of Najaf who guards the revered shrine of Imam Ali.Jaafer said none of the roughly two dozen female officers posted at the shrine had guns or uniforms, even though they searched women and children entering the complex and faced threats from the increased use of female suicide bombers. Their male counterparts are armed, Jaafer said.

Had the US not installed thugs (to bring 'safety'), women in Iraq wouldn't be so at risk and wouldn't have seen the destruction of their rights. If only Iraqi women had big-monied lobbyists they could hire, they too might appear on the front page of the New York Times as the Kurds do in Alissa J. Rubin's "Kurds' Power Wanes as Arab Anger Rises:"

As a minority group in Iraq, the Kurds have enjoyed disproportionate influence in the country’s politics since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But now their leverage appears to be declining as tensions rise with Iraqi Arabs, raising the specter of another fissure alongside the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites.The Kurds, who are mostly Sunni but not Arab, have steadfastly backed the government, most recently helping to keep it afloat when Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lacked support from much of Parliament.With their political acumen, close ties to the Americans and technical competence at running government agencies, the Kurds cemented a position of enormous strength. This allowed them to all but dictate terms in Iraq’s Constitution that gave them considerable regional autonomy and some significant rights in oil development.

Camilla Hall (Bloomberg News) notes: " Two bombs exploded in Baghdad markets, killing at least 43 people and wounding 85 others, Agence France- Presse reported, citing Iraqi security and medical officials. " BBC says it's over 50 and has a photo essay of the blasts. Bloomberg's Hall refiles with the number at 53 and citing "female suicide bombers" (two). CNN says 53 as well with 94 injured with one area being a bird market and claiming 8 lives with fourteen wounded and the other being an animal market and claiming 45 lives with eighty wounded. The death toll will probably rise throughout the morning (AP says 64 right now).

Both markets are surrounded by concrete barriers to bar cars from entering, but with no one to search women at the entrance and exit checkpoints, the female bombers were able to slip in with explosive vests hidden under flowing coats, police said.By Friday afternoon, U.S. and Iraqi military had surrounded the markets and were questioning witnesses, as people cleaned pools of blood from the pavement and swept up dead birds and destroyed pet carriers.

But Bully Boy's been preaching 'win' and we're all supposed to be repeating the lie that the escalatin is 'working' and 'accomplishing' something.

The U.S. death toll in Iraq increased in January, ending a four-month drop in casualties, and most of the deaths occurred outside Baghdad or the once-restive Anbar province, according to military statistics.In all, 38 American service members had been reported killed in January by Thursday evening, compared with 23 in December. Of those, 33 died from hostile action, but only nine of them in Baghdad or Anbar.A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks the statistics.

After Youssef filed, the number would be 39. And of course this is the first day of the month and more January deaths may be announced slowly (as is the pattern).

President Bush asserted Thursday that he would not be pressured into making further troop cuts in Iraq beyond the five combat brigades already scheduled to come home by the middle of the summer.[. . .]The comments were the latest indication from the administration that it may keep the number of troops in Iraq at roughly the same level they were before last year's buildup of U.S. forces, possibly through the end of Bush's presidency. Under existing plans, the levels are gradually falling about 5,000 troops a month, from roughly 160,000 to 130,000 by July -- or approximately where they stood before Bush sent reinforcements to Iraq seeking to curtail spiraling sectarian violence.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

After driving for more than three days straight from Kentucky, Bethany "Skyler" James and another soldier ran out of gas and money outside of Cornwall, Ont.That's when they got in contact with the War Resisters Support Campaign.James, 19, is one of four former soldiers in Ottawa who have escaped American military life."I do not believe in the [Iraq] war at all. It is an illegal war," James says. "It's ridiculous."To get to Canada, James and her fellow soldier snuck out of their army base in Kentucky and crossed the border while skipping customs, says James.James says she joined the army after high school because her community promoted military life and the army promised her the chance to go to college.She says this never happened."When I signed up, I got duped," she says. "They didn't put any college money in my contract. I got screwed over so bad."James says she isn’t the only one who received false promises."All the resisters that I know here in Canada have had that happen," she says.In addition to her feelings on the war and broken promises about college, James says she left because of all bullying she was subjected to as a lesbian.

The above is from Julia Johnson's "Soldier no more" (The Charlatan). One way you can help Skyler is to contact the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.

One way you can hurt her is by denying reality. "Because of all bullying she was subjected to as a lesbian." In the 90s, we thought we were moving forward as a country. But this election cycle was saw a 'uniter' candidate -- Bambi -- use homophobia to scare up a few votes. And what's really disgusting is that none of White 'independent' media called him out. A really bad woman, a really disgusting woman, named Susan Lenfestey writes a column at Common Dreams where she tries to pimp her lousy candidate (Bambi) by 'channeling' Molly Ivins. What would Molly do? Would she have supported Bambi in the election? We don't know. He hadn't declared. But there's something really tacky and sick about Susan Lenfestey trying to use Molly Ivins to advance her pet candidate.

I can tell you one damn thing Molly Ivins would do, Susan Lenfestey, she would call you out on your non-stop ignoring of the illegal war. That's a given. As disgusting that you used Ivins to pimp your candidate, the fact that you want to 'celebrate' her without carrying on her work demonstrates that you're not into anything but your pet candidate. You're disgusting. And as someone who knew Molly, I find you offensive.

Like all the bulk of the 'writers' showing up to 'celebrate' Molly, none seem to grasp that the best way to celebrate her was to carry on what death prevented her for doing: focusing on Iraq. What did she write? That she was going to focus every column on the Iraq War. That's something the vultures picking at Molly's bones can't do.

It's pathetic now to read the 'tributes' to Molly and it was pathetic then as you grasped that all of those who claimed to be inspired/entertained/honored by her writing never once bothered to grab the torch and carry it in her honor. That would have required real work and, let's face it, it's so much easier to turn out the text equivalent of Tim Russert from the faux left.

Spitting on Molly's stated goal to pimp your candidate, have you no shame?

James Gerstenzang (Los Angeles Times) reports that Bully Boy gave a speech (to a right-wing non-think tank) today where he boasted of his illegal war and declared that the Iraq War was not about a "political right thing." Why stop there? There's nothing correct or appropriate about the illegal war. He could have added that "It's not the legal right thing. It's not the ethical right thing. . . . " He could have just offered his laundry list and still be speaking right now. Michael Howard (Guardian of London) offers that Moqtada al-Sadr is saying the cease-fire is over unless puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki prevents attacks on his followers. From the article:

Sadr is due to review the six-month freeze later this month. Last week, the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, wrote to the senior US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, asking him to recognise Sadr's initiative and urging American troops to halt their attacks on Sadr's supporters. In reply, Petraeus praised the anti-US Shia cleric, but said the troops would continue to target those who were apparently not obeying the cleric's orders.

So al-Sadr may call the truce off and the Iraqi parliament still hasn't passed the 2008 budget, the much tauted de-de-Baathificiation program hit a snag today when one of Iraq's two vice-presidents told Reuters the legislation wasn't going anywhere and the illegal war hits the five year mark in March.

It's going to last until the American people demand it end. It's not going to end because your pet-candidate wants combat troops withdrawn in a year or two or maybe sent back in (as Bambi explained to Gordo) as needed. Maybe soon we'll be lucky enough to have the Democratic Party pick one or the other and alleged 'independent' media can actually try focusing on the illegal war?Not that that would happen. If Hillary got the nomination, they'd go 'global' to ignore US politics -- and 'going global' wouldn't mean paying attention to Iraq, if Barack got the nomination we'd probably suffer through months of John Nichols scribbling about how when Barack hit puberty, he sprouted strands of gold and licorice instead of hair.

Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 3931. Tonight? 3943. Just Foreign Policy's total stands at 1,168,058 (it wasn't update last Thursday or the Thursday before). The big thing today was that reporters were gearing up (this morning) their "US deaths up but only more than December. November was still higher." Then came one announcement. They geared up for their "US deaths up but only more than December and November. October was still higher." Lot of rewriting today because the monthly total (and more announcements may be forthcoming) is 39 which is higher than December (29), is higher than November (37) and is higher than October (38).

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.